


Caving In

by motherofmercury



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Boys In Love, Cave smut, Family Vacation, Getting Together, M/M, Pining, Vacation, adventurous boys, basically the entire family, be safe around caves kids, caving, jeddyfest 2020, temporary partial memory loss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:42:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23715376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/motherofmercury/pseuds/motherofmercury
Summary: On a family holiday, James Sirius persuades Teddy it's a good idea to go exploring in a cave system that has long been rumoured as cursed. Alone and stuck in the caves, with certain memories wiped, the pair realise that despite the situation, they are both incredibly attracted to the other...
Relationships: Teddy Lupin/James Sirius Potter
Comments: 10
Kudos: 64
Collections: JeddyFest_2020





	Caving In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mapyourstars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mapyourstars/gifts), [Tonks914](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tonks914/gifts).



> Thank you a million times over to Tonks914 for such a wonderful prompt (I hope you like the cave smut), and to my endlessly incredible beta, mapyourstars. All my love, and I hope you all enjoy my fic! (I'll never be sorry for the puns)

The sun beat down relentlessly, hanging suspended like a coin on a thread in the endless cloud-studded sky, baking the freckles deeper into James’ fair skin.

James was perfectly content simply to lie in this field and soak in the thrumming sunlight while the rest of his family shrieked and squabbled. They were beginning to explore and set up their camp, away from potentially prying Muggle eyes. As far as James was concerned, it looked like they’d landed in the middle of a farm. Not much to explore, really.

Despite his endless Quidditch playing and all his favourite flying tricks to make even the most seasoned flier nauseous, Portkeys always made him feel awful. Especially long distance Portkeys. So he was taking a well-deserved minute — or twelve — to recover.

Long distance Portkeys were rough. And they’d taken several in relatively quick succession. The first one had been England to Egypt, where they stayed the night and picked up Uncle Bill and his family, before getting another to Madagascar. A week was spent in Madagascar as a sort of pre-holiday before finally they got the Portkey to New Zealand, where they were going to spend another two weeks before heading back to England via another series of awful Portkeys. James could tell Albus was already thoroughly sick of their family, so it was a good thing their mother had asked him if he’d like to invite Scorpius along. 

James just didn’t really understand why Portkeys were so hard. The sensation wasn’t all that different to a nose-dive, but the aftermath was never the same.

A flash of pink popped into his line of vision, vibrant against the azure sky. James smiled up at Teddy’s silhouette as he approached. All he could really see when Teddy finally stood over him was a dark oval topped with a messy spray of bright pink, limned in golden sunlight spilling over his shoulders and into James’ waiting face.

James held up a hand to shade his eyes from the halo that drenched Teddy’s outline. Teddy shifted a little so his shadow fell across James, allowing him to see Teddy’s face. “Your aura is pure gold,” James teased him, dropping his hand. He grinned cheekily and patted the ground beside him.

Teddy sat. “Yours is green,” he rejoined, “green with envy at my angelic beauty.” He propped himself up on one elbow so he could grin down at James.

“Prat. I think you’ll find I’m the angel around here.” James calmly closed his eyes and smiled up at the sun, desperately hoping it wasn’t too obvious that he was now basking in Teddy’s presence as much as the orb in the sky.

It would ultimately end in disaster if Teddy ever realised just how truthful James was every time he gave a joking compliment, or laughed at Teddy that he loved him.

“Come on, you prick. All the good beds will be taken if you don’t get a move on.” Despite his words, Teddy remained sprawled alongside James. “And probably rightfully so, at any rate,” he continued, “you haven’t lifted a finger to help set up.”

“Oi, I carried most everything of yours so you could carry that bloody Muggle tent!” James glanced balefully at Teddy and folded his hands on his chest. “I don’t see why you couldn’t just put an undetectable extension charm on the bag and be done with it.”

Teddy reached over and smacked James’s forehead playfully, jumping to his feet before James could even consider retaliating. “You know Aunt Hermione would’ve noticed. And you also know it’s in case any Muggles stumble upon us!” This last he called back over his shoulder at James, who was finally getting to his feet.

James measured the distance between him and Teddy and knew he could easily outrun the taller boy. While Teddy was tall and lanky, James was slightly shorter and more compactly muscled, as well as faster, due to all the Quidditch training. Teddy wasn’t unfit however, and James knew he’d better get started if he intended to catch up. He bounced on the balls of his feet lightly for a moment and then sprinted after Teddy.

Despite the head start, it only took James a few moments to catch up. Teddy made the mistake of glancing over his shoulder, inevitably slowing himself down just enough for James to take a springing leap and tackle him to the ground as a wolf would a rabbit. They rolled through the grass together, tussling like children - or wolf cubs - until a pair of sturdily booted feet blocked their rolling trajectory.

“Get a room, wankers. The rest of us don’t want to witness whatever _this_ is,” Dominique drawled, waving a hand that very clearly encompassed the two boys still lying tangled on the ground.

Suddenly James was horribly aware of his arm brushing against the warm sliver of skin where Teddy’s shirt had ridden up, and how the hair on Teddy’s legs rasped fuzzily against James in a soft, much-too-pleasant way. He swallowed quickly and forced a carefree grin onto his face.

“No worse than you and Lysandy Scamandy. Thank Merlin we decided against inviting him.”

Dom just rolled her eyes, arms crossed on her chest. “Please, Lysander is far too young for me. They’re choosing beds, stop dallying.” With that, she turned on her heel and marched towards the scattering of deceptively small and few tents in relation to all the people milling about.

Amid the usual chaos of so many people—a rude joke from James; a punch from Vic on behalf of Louis; and a pompous reprimand from Rose—the beds were finally chosen and gear strewn about to claim them.

“Alright, kids!” Grandpa Arthur called, despite many of them not having been kids for several years now. “Gather around!”

James thought he looked oddly small without Grandma Molly next to him, but she had opted to spend a quiet week with Teddy’s nan, Andromeda, claiming the wilderness and long distance Portkeys were getting too hard on her old bones.

“Okay.” Grandpa Arthur settled into a camping chair with a grunt, the various adults and children arraying themselves around him or sprawling on the grass in front of him like children waiting for story time. And they pretty much were waiting for story time. Grandpa Arthur always knew the lore and legends surrounding any place they visited, so he was the one to tell them the secret places and the histories, and to warn them off any potentially dangerous areas. Although, with all the Weasley blood in their massive family, heading straight for the dangerous places was quite a common occurrence on family trips. Or at any time, really.

So it was they came to be sitting there, listening to him tell wild stories of ancient wizards inhabiting the cave system in that part of New Zealand, and the strong rumours that many of the caves were cursed; being so remote, curse-breakers hadn’t been out there to remove them.

“So, as usual, be careful,” Grandpa Arthur concluded, adding under his breath, “but of course all you bloody Weasleys don’t know how to be careful.” But he smiled round at them all fondly, sending them off with a cheerful wave of his hand.

James eyed Grandpa Arthur speculatively for a moment before shifting his gaze sideways to Teddy. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“No, James, we are not going to explore those caves.” Teddy rolled his eyes at his excited friend.

James rolled his own eyes and flashed Teddy his most mischievous grin, knowing full well that Teddy could never resist him. Not that James could ever resist Teddy either, but he firmly quashed that thought under his Quidditch boots. 

James jumped up and stretched excessively, pretending to limber up stiff joints. “We’ll be off then!” he called over the sudden talking of all the cousins and family.

“Don’t go too far!” came the expected call after him.

But James was already a fair way across the field and Teddy had to scramble to catch up with him. They ran through the grass, blowing past dandelions and scattering daisies like a fierce wind, the sun pounding down on them with deceptive friendliness. They’d been warned the sun was much harsher in this southern clime, but they were heading for the caves. The sun wouldn’t matter much longer.

“Alright, Ted?” James slowed down to a walk to allow the both of them to breathe a bit; although Teddy was definitely panting more than James. Unable to answer just then, Teddy came to a halt and leaned over, his hands braced on his knees to catch his breath.

A few moments later, Teddy was able to say: “Please can we stop running everywhere? We have so much time to get places.”

“But Tedward,” James pouted, walking back towards him, “running gets us places so much faster.”

“So?” Teddy scowled up at James from his bent position, a few strands of sweaty pink hair flopping into his eyes.

“More time to enjoy the places!”

Teddy just shook his head and straightened up.

James bounced on the balls of his feet excitedly. “Let’s go!” 

“I’m setting the pace this time!” Teddy claimed, striding past him.

“Fiiiiiinnnne,” James capitulated. “But I get to go into the cave first.”

Teddy snorted, “Be my guest.”

They crossed the rest of the field at a much more sedate pace, until at last they came up to the base of the cliff that hemmed in the southern side but opened out into a short plateau overlooking the grey sanded beach. The cave system was eroded into the side of the cliff and had openings along the beach as well as in the mountain that the cliff sprung from.

The opening of the cave was a stark patch of darkness on the bright hillside, almost sucking the light and life out of the day. James felt a shiver run up his spine at that thought, but he shook it off and pulled his wand out of his pocket.

“Come on, then.”

“Aren’t we supposed to wear helmets or something?” Teddy asked anxiously, holding his own wand almost defensively.

James glanced back over his shoulder at Teddy, noting the dark green creeping into the roots of his hair. “Well…” he began, “the Muggles do, but Wizards have thicker skulls apparently, so we should be fine. Besides, Grandpa Arthur says nothing has shifted in these caves for generations. _Lumos._ ”

“Oh, Wizards are definitely thicker,” Teddy muttered, hair regaining its pink colour as he followed James into the cave. “Putting themselves into situations like this.”

“Well, if you’re going to be a downer you don’t have to come with me.”

Teddy lit his own wand and gave James a gentle shove. “Don’t be a prat, of course I’m coming.”

James held his wand up to illuminate the roof of the cave system. It was relatively low at their entry point but it disappeared up into darkness ahead of them. Massive shiny columns of rock trickled water down the sides of the caves and over thousands of tiny, glistening lights, several of which flickered out at their noise.

“Stalagmites.” Teddy whispered. “And glowworms! There are so many!”

“You what mites?”

“Stalagmites and stalactites, that’s what the dripping columns are. And the little lights are glowworms.”

“Yeah, I figured the glowworm part,” James moved closer to one of the columns dripping from the ceiling, the water reflecting the bright light of his wand, and that of the braver glowworms. “Why do they have two names?”

“They don’t, stupid,” Teddy shone his own wand up at the rock. “Stalactites are the ones that hang from the roof like tights hanging on a line or something, and the stalagmites reach up from the ground like mites trying to get into the tights.”

James gave him an incredulous look and Teddy shrugged, blinking in the full force of James’ lit wand. “How do you even know these things?”

“I read books, maybe you could borrow one sometime.” Teddy rolled his eyes, that was an offer he’d made many times, but one that James would never take him up on unless it was mandatory reading for school, or a book on Quidditch or broom care.

James didn’t even bother replying.

“Hey,” Teddy gestured with his wand, “is that an opening or is the rock just darker for some reason?”

James reluctantly pulled his gaze away from the massive stalactite he’d been examining and followed Teddy to the wall of the cave. “That’s definitely an opening. Give me a boost?”

Teddy put his wand between his teeth and cupped his hands for James to step into. He proceeded to do so and grabbed the edge of the opening, pulling himself in. “Hey, this tunnel opens into another room! It’s like a whole grand hall or something in here!” His voice echoed oddly through the cave, barely coming back out the hole he’d just been swallowed into. “But what— Ow!”

“Jamie?” Teddy asked around the wand between his teeth. He hoisted himself up to the hole and crawled through the barely man-sized gap. “James? What happened? Where are you?” 

Teddy jumped down on the other side and held his wand up to illuminate some of the large space. His pitiful _Lumos_ barely pierced the pressing darkness around him, and he more stumbled upon than saw James. He was lying crumpled on the floor and Teddy was sure it was a practical joke, but he ran to his best friend anyway. Something about the way he lay didn’t look natural. But before he could reach the younger man, it felt as if he walked into some kind of wall, winding himself. His wand clattered to the ground, the light flickering out as he crouched down next to the other man, trying to breathe. For some reason the air didn’t want to fill his lungs the way it should, but he almost didn’t care right then, so he just lay down on the cold, damp cave floor and closed his eyes.

*******

James awoke with the fuzzy kind of headache he’d come to associate with drinking too much wine, but he was sure he hadn’t had any wine before he went to sleep. But come to think of it, he wasn’t at all sure where he was, how he came to be there, or when he’d fallen asleep. Or who he was, for that matter. He sat up gingerly, rubbing his gritty eyes and wondering if he’d gone blind the darkness was so absolute. 

He knew he’d had a wand when he fell asleep, so if he could just find that, he would be fine. He patted around on the floor until he found it. Only, it was rough where his wand was smooth and seemed to be at least two inches longer than he remembered. He shrugged and muttered a quick _Lumos_ anyway, seeing as his memory didn’t really seem to be serving him so well just then.

He startled back as the wandlight illuminated a figure on the ground beside him. It was a man who looked roughly his own age - his face crinkled up into a frown as he tried to recall exactly what age that was - and he was long and lanky and had hair the colour of soft caramel toffee, shot through with honey and a darker treacle. His features were softened with unconsciousness, but he really was rather attractive.

James bit his lip in consternation and maybe just a very little bit of arousal. But no. James shut that thought down before it could really blossom. He didn’t know who this person was or how they’d come to be in this darkness together. So what if he was so damn attractive? His cock could mind its own goddamn business as far as he was concerned. For all he knew, this adorable idiot could be the world’s biggest homophobic arsehole, and James wasn’t about to make advances on a complete stranger in circumstances like _this_.

But then — and James was chewing his bottom lip by now — what was he doing in what appeared to be a cave with such an attractive man as that? There were surely not that many sane answers to that question. Well, maybe he wasn’t even sane at all, that would certainly explain a few things. He rolled his eyes heavenward and stood up, taking the wand that probably belonged to the caramel-haired man and beginning a cursory exploration of the space they were in. Merlin. What the _fuck_ was going on?

James felt about for the wall and once he found it, he chose a direction and began counting his paces. He’d walked about twenty when he heard a groan from the caramel-haired man. He cast a quick spell to make a mark in the wall where he’d reached and turned back, eager to find out something, _anything,_ about this man and what they were doing there together.

He approached slowly, crouching down a safe distance from him and holding out the wand to illuminate his face. The man groaned again and rolled his head to the side, eyes opening to slits. At the sight of James he shrieked surprisingly loudly and threw himself backwards. The breath caught in James’ throat as the man’s hair abruptly turned a vibrant yellow, then cycling through an array of equally bright colours.

So the man was a metamorphmagus. Interesting.

“Who are you?!” the man choked out, “and where the fuck am I?”

“Both questions I’ve been asking myself, mate.”

The man’s hair seemed to have settled to an attractive turquoise colour, and James couldn’t help noticing how it complemented his golden caramel eyes, even in the dim light of his wand. He ran his hands over his face and then through his hair, making the bright strands stand up in peaks and tufts.

“I have deduced we are in a cave,” James began, but he was cut off by the other man.

“Deduced that, have you? I’d say it was pretty obvious from the massive stalagmites and those few glowworms who haven’t been scared off by your voice.” He stood up slowly and James had to wince at the sound of his knee cracking.

“Alright, Mr. Genius, why not tell us what the fuck we’re doing here with the bloody stalagmites then?”

The man sighed and ran a hand down his face again. “Well, I suppose first thing’s first. What’s your name?”

“James,” he didn’t mean for it to sound so defensive.

“James. I’m Teddy.” The pompous git actually held out a hand for him to shake.

James rolled his eyes, but took the hand and shook it. “I believe this is your wand,” he held it up for a moment, “but I can’t seem to find mine.”

“Wand. Right.” The man — Teddy — put his hands on his hips and turned a slow circle, scanning everything within their little circle of wandlight. “Well, James, I suggest we find your wand.”

“Finally, a good idea.” He smirked at Teddy’s raised eyebrow, but James was sure that was a smile playing at the corners of his full lips. Merlin, those were nice lips, they would look so fantastic curled around— 

James choked that thought off, but his cock had already responded to the image in his brain. He had to turn away and pretend a coughing fit to cover the rather obvious swell in his pants. “I’ll look over here!” he gasped.

“Are you okay?” Teddy sounded genuinely concerned, but James had to focus on anything but _that man_ right now. He was looking for his wand.

He groped through the darkness for a minute, placing his feet carefully so as to not kick his wand away by accident if he came upon it. Unfortunately, even though James had given Teddy back the lit wand, the taller man — as James had realised when he stood up — hadn’t had the same thought. There was a clatter and a curse from Teddy. Evidently, he’d found James’ wand but kicked it skittering away.

James turned around and made his way back towards the little pool of light, pants thankfully a tad looser. 

“I had it, but I tripped and must’ve kicked it away. Bloody hell, I’m sorry.” Teddy turned to James apologetically, but James just laughed.

“I didn’t take you for such a klutz.” He grinned as Teddy narrowed his eyes at him. “Which way did it go?”

Teddy straightened up and frowned slightly. “What did you take me for, then?”

James cleared his throat. “I uh, I took you for an attractive guy.” He smirked quickly to cover up his blunt honesty, just in case he’d read the whole situation wrong.

“You think I’m attractive?” Teddy looked James up and down and suddenly he was the one who was smirking. “You’re not so bad yourself.”

“Gee thanks.” James rolled his eyes. “Well, what does this mean, then?”

“What, our mutual attraction?” Teddy ran a hand through his hair. “Were we— Do ya think we were…?”

“One way to find out.” James threw caution to the wind and took a few steps to close the gap between himself and Teddy. He took the taller man’s face in his hands and pressed their lips together. Teddy immediately parted his lips, allowing James’ tongue entrance to his mouth.

It was electric. James was sure he’d never enjoyed a kiss so much in his life. But too soon Teddy was pulling away and looking at James with something different in his eyes. His hair was a confused shade of fuschia but James wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. Why did he feel so strongly that he should know?

“That—” James had to pause to take a deeper breath. “That felt right.”

“I agree.”

“Well, then. What does this mean?”

Teddy rubbed a hand over his face and shook his head slightly before taking James’ arm and pulling their bodies back together. “Clearly we had something going before somehow ending up in a cave with no way out, and getting knocked out, only to wake up again with very specific memories removed.”

“Like all the important how, why, where, and who memories?”

“Precisely.”

James made a noise in the back of his throat, his cock was very aware of the warmth radiating from Teddy’s body and the way his breath smelled very slightly minty. “We can figure out exactly what we don’t know later. Right now, I have a very specific pastime in mind…”

James bit his lip as Teddy almost growled, the taller man’s cock obviously just as aware of their proximity as James’.

“Okay,” Teddy breathed, taking a step backwards. There was a crack and then a clatter and then Teddy was falling, James going down on top of him with a yelp. “Shit—” Teddy began.

The air was knocked out of James, but Teddy had broken his fall and he was otherwise fine. He rolled off Teddy, who groaned, and felt around on the ground for what he had tripped on.

James found the two pieces of wood still holding themselves together by a few strands of unicorn hair. “You broke my wand!” he cried.

“Merlin, I am _so_ sorry. Shit, you were right, I’m a massive klutz—”

James sighed and shoved the pieces into his pocket, cutting Teddy off. “No, it’s okay, it’s dark in here and I could just as easily have stood on it as you.”

“But still, I am sorry,” Teddy tried to continue.

“Don’t worry about it.” James laughed lightly at the stricken look on Teddy’s face. He brought his hands up to smooth away the lines, and Teddy’s hands came up to lightly grip his wrists, his own wand still lit but forgotten on the ground. James hesitated for a moment, then placed a tender kiss on Teddy’s forehead. He planted a slightly sillier one on his nose, making him laugh. 

“Okay,” Teddy gave a breathy chuckle, “I won’t worry.” He pressed his own lips to James’ briefly, before pulling back slightly to ask, “Where were we?”

“Right about here.” James grabbed two fistfuls of Teddy’s shirt and pulled him towards himself.

*******

“Well, I suppose if we’re going to be stuck here for a while, we should probably see if we can find some water,” James said from his spot curled into Teddy’s warm side, their arms around each other.

“Mmm,” Teddy agreed, “and we need to establish exactly what we know.”

James wiggled his eyebrows, even though Teddy couldn’t really see him in the darkness, but the sultry tone of his voice was unmistakable. “We seem to have already done quite well in the _things we know_ department.”

Teddy snorted and gave James a playful swat. “You know what I mean.”

“Mmm.” James snuggled closer into Teddy’s side.

“James,” Teddy said quietly. James could hear the smile in his voice. It made him feel so warm and fuzzy, he never wanted to lose this.

“Okaaaaayyyy.” James pried himself off Teddy and sat up, stretching. “We’ll definitely need some light if we’re going to find anything in here.” He pulled Teddy’s wand out of the pile of collected clothing they were lying on, grabbing his pants and pulling those on too. He muttered a spell and flicked the strange wand, smiling smugly when a golden ball of light appeared out the end and drifted towards the ceiling, drenching the darkness with a golden glow. He cast the spell a few more times, sending golden light floating to different parts of the cavern. 

“Nice spell,” Teddy hummed appreciatively, sitting up enough to lean against one elbow. “Where’d you learn that?”

James turned back to him with a grin, now bathed in an angelic glow from the globes. “My dad taught me—” he broke off. “That’s interesting…”

“What?” Teddy sat up properly, pulling his own pants on.

“I remember that my dad taught me that spell, but I can’t remember who my dad is. When I try to think of him it’s like he’s been blurred out, or I can’t focus directly on him. Like my gaze just slides sideways or something, you know?”

Teddy frowned. “Sure.” His frown deepened and he stated “My parents are dead.”

James winced. “Sorry.”

Teddy looked up at him, puzzled for a moment before his face cleared. “No, no, it’s okay. They died when I was young, I never really knew them.” He turned away from James and surveyed what they could see of the cave. “You’re right though, it’s so weird. I remember that they _are_ dead, but not how, or why, or really when.”

“Do you think there’s a pattern to what we do and don’t remember? Or is it just random?”

Teddy ran a hand through his hair, letting it shift through a series of colours as he turned back to James. “Well, it seems kind of random, but I think there is a slight pattern? The things we don’t remember always seem to pertain to family and who we are. Also how we got into this cave together, but I suppose that’s so we can’t easily get out again? I don’t know.” He threw his hands up and let them flop back down to his sides. 

James walked up to him and wrapped his arms around the slightly taller man. “Hey, it’s okay. Let’s look for water, now. Then later we can start looking for a way out.”

Teddy sighed, bringing his arms up around James. “Okay.” He nuzzled into James’ messy hair for a moment and then pulled back. “Let’s look for water.”

*******

Teddy pinned James to the damp wall of the cave, and for once James didn’t care that his hair was getting wet from the trickle of water through the cavernous vault of the roof.

They’d found a steady trickle of fresh, drinkable water near the back of the cave countless naps ago, and they’d soon situated themselves near it. Time was meaningless in their constant semi-darkness. Thankfully, the water tasted harmless enough, if a little earthy. But earthy water was better than dying of thirst, and _Aguamenti_ didn’t really work as real, drinkable water. That spell was better for putting out small fires, or cooling down on a hot day.

James threw his head back against the damp rock and let out a breathy moan as Teddy lovingly left bruises down his neck and chest. James had his hand down between them and he shifted his grip from his own cock to Teddy’s, relishing the sharp gasp he was rewarded with.

_“James,”_ Teddy moaned. “I want you _now_.”

He let out a quiet chuckle, gently caressing Teddy. “What’s the magic word?”

“ _Please_ ,” Teddy growled, grabbing James’ shoulders and whipping him around to display his lovely round buttocks.

James braced himself against the wall, one hand going back down to his own cock. He gasped at the cool wash of the lubrication spell against his warm skin. Teddy didn’t bother fingering James first, forcing a whimper from the younger man as Teddy thrust into him, hard and fast, almost violently bumping his prostate. James pumped his own hand to the rhythmic slapping of Teddy’s hips against his arse, Teddy’s hot breath panting into his ear.

“Can’t… hold—” Teddy’s voice was pitching higher with each word, and James was rising with him, rapidly approaching the edge.

Teddy came first with a hot spurt into James and a final violent thrust, James finishing right after him, painting the cave wall. 

Teddy hung suspended for a moment before letting himself gently slide out of James. He limply flicked his wrist, cleaning them both up, and then flopped down against the wall, James plopping down next to him.James leaned his head against Teddy, basking in his warmth. “I’m so hungry,” he groaned. “That’s the problem with all this fucking.” 

James had no idea how long they’d been trapped together, other than the indication of their growling stomachs. He also had no idea how many times they’d fucked and slept and fucked again. 

“But I almost don’t want to be rescued,” he continued. “I really like being here. With you.”

Teddy put his arms around James and pulled him close. “Me too,” he whispered. “Me too.”

*******

“Teddy! James?” Harry called through the caves, wand held aloft to light his way, but his plea just ricocheted back to him tantalisingly. Harry winced at the sounds of his voice calling back over and over. It sounded horribly like James’ voice when he would play stupid hiding games with Ted when they were younger.

Merlin, why did he not keep a closer eye on the boys?! Or even just looked for them a day or two sooner? He’d really thought they’d have more sense after the shrieking jinx incident in Madagascar, but clearly he’d been wrong. 

Harry lifted his wand higher and scanned the walls, looking for any kind of opening. Anything could have happened to them! Gin had shrugged and said they’d show up eventually, but honestly, that woman had too much faith in their son. Teddy, maybe, but James? James didn’t know when to stop, and Harry was very certain that would be his downfall. Oh _Merlin_ , where were they?!

“ _JAMES!_ ”

*******

“Did you hear that?” James sat up and looked around, sure he had heard something echoing. It had sounded dull and far away, so he had to check he hadn’t imagined it.

“Hmm?” Teddy blinked up at him from under hot pink lashes, shedding his drowsy state. “Did you hear something?”

“Yeah…” James frowned, glancing around their golden lighted cave. “Maybe I’m imagining things. Easy enough to go insane in a few days here.” His eyes landed back on Teddy, and he let them trail down his exposed body.

Teddy lay back with a grin, enjoying James’ hungry gaze. “I can imagine a few things…”

“I’m sure you can,” James’ voice dropped, and he bit his lower lip.

Teddy watched James’ lips glisten in the warm light, preparing himself to deny the beautiful man before him. “But,” he continued, “fucking makes me so hungry, and we really need to put more effort into finding a way out of this bloody wanking cave.”

James rolled his eyes and stood up in one surprisingly fluid motion. “Fiiiine. I suppose a way in is a way out, so we just need to find the way we got in.” James placed his hands on his hips and raised one eyebrow cockily at Teddy. “Sounds easy enough. Wait, did we even try Apparation?”

“Yeah, I tried it when you were asleep. It’s a no,” Teddy rubbed a hand over his face and stood up to join James. He wrapped his arms around the gloriously muscular man and glanced pointedly down between their bodies. “If we’re looking for a way out, getting dressed might be a good plan.”

“Really?” James pulled away and struck a pose in all his naked glory. “We couldn’t possibly deprive the outside world of such beauty, could we?!” He asked in mock horror.

“You’re still beautiful with your clothes on, you prick,” Teddy grabbed randomly at the pile on the ground and threw the clothing at James, careless of whether or not they were actually his.

“Aww, you think I’m beautiful?”

There was an unmistakable flush to Teddy’s cheeks, and even into the roots of his hair as he said, “Shut up,” pulling a shirt over his head.

James imitated Teddy’s motion and pulled on the shirt he’d caught. It strained across his broad shoulders and tugged the fabric every time he moved.

“Okay, I think that’s my shirt.”

James knew it would drive Teddy wild to see James in his clothing, so he acted nonchalant. “No, I think this is right, it fits perfectly.” He tipped Teddy a salacious wink and grabbed the wand off the ground before either of them broke that one too. He made his way to the wall of the cave, muttering a quick _Lumos._ He held the wand up to shed light farther than the floating golden globes offered from their places near the high ceiling.

Teddy finished getting dressed and joined James. “There might be some kind of spell disguising the exit, here, give me my wand,” he reached out and plucked it from James’ hand, gaining an indignant noise from him. “ _Finite Incantatem!_ ”

James felt the spell bounce around the cave and they were quickly plunged into complete darkness.

“Nice one,” he deadpanned.

“Sorry,” Teddy muttered, not sounding at all sorry. “Well, do that fancy light ball spell again.”

“I can’t do it wandless yet, give me yours. Where are you?” James groped around, trying to find Teddy in the pressing darkness. “Merlin, I can’t see a thing!”

“I’m here.” Teddy grabbed James’ arm, making him shriek. “Alright, it’s just me,” he sniggered.

“Hey, don’t laugh, there could be anything in this cave!”

“I think if there were anything in this cave we’d have noticed. We’ve been here for a few days at least.” Teddy ran his hand up James’ arm and pulled him into a hug, heedless of his body still shaking slightly with his laughter.

“You’re still laughing,” James complained, petulantly.

Teddy pulled back and stifled his chuckling. “Here, take my wand.” He ran his hand down James’ arm in the darkness and placed the wand into his open palm. 

James closed his hand around it and took a step away from Teddy, the cool damp darkness closing in around him. He raised it and gave a flick, doing the spell nonverbally. A glowing golden orb expanded and then lifted from the tip of the wand, rising to hang suspended above them. James didn’t bother with making more than the one. He enchanted it to follow them along the wall, making their search hopefully a little easier. Or at least a little brighter. 

There came a strange echoing noise from somewhere along the cave wall they were searching, and this time James was sure he hadn’t imagined it. “Seriously, can you hear that?”

“Yeah,” Teddy whispered, “I heard that.” He walked farther along the wall, grabbing his wand back from James and holding its light up a little higher. “There must be a hole around here somewhere if we can hear someone from the other side of this wall.”

James quietly paced up behind him and then, without warning, shouted at the top of his lungs, “HEY! HELP US!”

“Charming.” Teddy winced away from him.

James shrugged with a grin. “You’ll thank me when we’re rescued. Just remember how hungry you are.”

Teddy began scanning the wall with a renewed vigour. “Hey,” he nudged James, “do you see that?”

James peered where Teddy was pointing, but his gaze slid away from the imperfection on the wall. “No,” he frowned.

“Exactly.” Teddy grinned. “There’s definitely something there, but our eyes don’t want to focus on it, right?”

“Yeahhh,” James began slowly. “Yeah, it’s like with the memories! My eyes can’t focus there, or something.”

“So, obviously my spell didn’t work, but maybe it’s only an optical illusion and we can find the hole by touch?”

“That kinda sounds like wishful thinking to me. Maybe try yelling again?”

“ANYONE THERE?”

“Oi!” It was James’ turn to wince away from the yell.

“Shhh! Did you hear that?!”

There came a questioning kind of noise from the wall, and James watched as Teddy reached out his hand and started patting along the wall where their eyes didn’t want to focus. James gave a sudden gasp when Teddy’s hand melted into the wall almost up to his elbow.

*******

“HELLO?” Harry yelled into the hole he’d found in the cave wall. It was about low enough that one of the boys could have boosted the other and then been pulled up, and it was definitely large enough that they could have comfortably crawled through to the other side. So if that was the case, why hadn’t they been able to crawl back through the hole?

He’d definitely heard someone calling from the other side of that wall, he just needed a way into the hole. Harry turned away from the wall and cast around for Ron and Charlie. The brothers had come to search with him when the boys hadn’t returned after three days. Harry berated himself for waiting so long to go looking for them, but he had really thought they could take care of themselves and would return before anyone would get too worried. 

“Hey, Charlie!” He called out to his brother-in-law who was closer than Ron, and probably a lot stronger than Ron, in any case. “Could you give me a boost? I want to have a look through there.” He waved his lit wand in the direction of the hole. 

“Yeah, ‘course.” Charlie squatted slightly and offered his cupped hands to Harry, who put one foot in and used them to propel himself up, grabbing the edge of the hole and hoisting himself in. He had never been more thankful for his Auror training keeping him fit than he was right then. 

“James?” he called through the tunnel, “Teddy?”

“Hello?!” came a muffled reply.

“James!” Harry called a little louder, crawling faster. He came to a sudden halt as he saw a disembodied arm sticking through the wall at the end of the tunnel, waving frantically. “Teddy?” he asked with a frown.

“Help!” came the voice again, “pull me through!”

Harry grabbed the arm and pulled on it gently, eyebrows rising as a shoulder and then a head and torso began to appear through the wall. He had to shuffle backwards a little to make enough room. 

“Teddy!” Harry rejoiced as his godson fully emerged from the cave wall. “Where’s James?!”

“Back there,” Teddy said. “JAMES!” he yelled, “STICK YOUR ARM THROUGH THE WALL!”

“No need to yell, you twat,” came the slightly muffled reply as another arm appeared through the wall.

“H-Harry,” Teddy stuttered slightly, turning to look at his godfather, the bright green eyes piercing through him, even in the near-darkness. “Can you shuffle back?”

“Yeah, of course.” Harry crawled backwards out of the tunnel, feeling carefully with his feet and knees for the drop at the other end. When he reached it, he carefully hung over the edge and then let himself drop to the ground easily. He was soon followed by Teddy, and then James, both of whom had come through the wall forwards, so were able to crawl through the tunnel normally. 

Teddy crumbled to the ground when he jumped down, running his hands back and forth through his hair in what looked a little bit like panic.

“Hey, Ted, are you alright?” Harry crouched down next to him, putting a soothing arm on his shoulder.

Charlie stepped forwards to help James down, Ron holding his wand up to light them all.

“Yeah— Yeah, I’ll be okay,” Teddy gasped in a lungful of air. 

*******

“Jamie,” Teddy’s voice broke as he glanced back at the man he’d spent three days in a cave with, had sex with inumerable times, and if he was completely honest: the man he had fallen in love with. The man who was his godfather’s son. Practically his brother. And he’d _slept_ with him, oh _Merlin,_ Harry was going to kill him. He almost shrunk away from Harry’s touch on his shoulder.

“Dad?” James choked out, sinking to the ground next to Teddy at the base of the cave wall he’d just crawled out of. He snuck a glance at Teddy, the colours rampaging through his hair a clear indication he was feeling just as many emotions as James. He’d been in love with Teddy for as long as he could remember, and now Teddy might never want to speak to him again.

“James,” Harry breathed, gathering both James and Teddy into a tight hug. “What happened to you boys? Why couldn’t you get out?”

James watched with intense admiration and not a little apprehension as Teddy mastered himself first, saying, “Grandpa Arthur was right, there’s some kind of curse on the caves. We crawled through there and were knocked out, but when we woke up we had memories missing. We didn’t know where we were, or how we’d ended up in that cavern together, or who we were to each other—” he broke off and James gulped in some air, unaware he hadn’t been breathing while Teddy spoke.

“But you’ve found us, and our memories are back, and can we please, _please_ get out of this fucking cave?” James blurted unceremoniously.

“Yes, yes of course. We’ll go back to the campsite and get you warmed up and something to eat— Merlin, did you have water in there?”

“Yeah, there was water, but—” Teddy was cut off by the loud rumbling of his own stomach. “Something to eat would be nice.”

Charlie chuckled and wrapped a blanket he’d been carrying around Teddy’s shoulders, saying, “This’ll have to do for now.” Harry did the same for James, and they all traipsed back through the cave, and towards the light. 

James blinked and squinted as they came out into the sun. For some reason he’d expected it to be night, but he welcomed the warmth on his chilly skin. He’d been warm enough in the cave because if he was ever cold he could just hug Teddy until they both warmed up, but his memories flooding back and what almost felt like shame seeping into his blood chilled him more than skin deep. James shook his head and firmed his jaw. No. He wouldn’t be shamed by what had happened in the cave. He loved Teddy, and he was pretty darn sure Teddy at least liked him back. He hadn’t realised just how much of a relief it would be to finally know how Teddy felt about him, even if he had gained that knowledge under dubious circumstances.

“JAMES!” 

James looked up at his name being yelled by several family members.

“TEDDY?” came the call and shrieks from the rest of the family. Cousins stumbled over each other to reach them first, wild with excitement over their misadventure.

“What happened? Where were you?!”

“Did you actually get stuck or were you just being idiots?”

“We actually got stuck,” Teddy inserted wearily. 

James let out a laugh as they were swarmed by their family, arms thrown around them and tugs at the arms as well as requests for the whole story.

“HEY!” Uncle Charlie yelled over the ruckus. “Give them some space! Step back!”

Reluctantly, the trampling hoard moved away from Teddy and James, giving them space and air they could actually breathe without inhaling someone’s wild Weasley hair or be battered by frantic questions.

“Someone get them some food, please,” Harry began, “and I need to tell my contacts at the New Zealand Ministry that we won’t be needing their search party.”

“It was right nice of them to prep one so quickly.” Uncle Ron nodded.

“Um.” James tugged at Teddy’s arm briefly and stopped walking a wee way from the tents and milling family. “Can I talk to Teddy alone for a minute?” he asked his dad.

Harry eyed him suspiciously for a moment, but he quickly gave in. “Alright, but don’t you dare run off again. We’ll be over by the tents.”

“Thanks, Dad.” James gave him a hug and then turned away, sitting down in the grass.

Teddy sat down next to him, shedding the blanket around his shoulders in favour of feeling the sun on his skin. He closed his eyes and basked in the warm day, waiting silently for James to speak.

“Hey, Ted?” James looked up at him, only meeting his eyes for a second before flicking the hazel orbs down again. “What— what are we gonna do? I mean, you don't want to just go back to how we were before, do you? If nothing else, we’ve established we’re attracted to each other…”

Teddy put his head in his hands and scrubbed his face vigorously for a second. “I don’t know, Jamie. I— I don’t want to go back to how we were.”

“Me neither,” James glanced up at Teddy quickly again and tentatively reached out to take his hand. Teddy gave him a smile and enclosed James’ hand in both of his. 

“Oh, Merlin, what are we going to tell Harry?”

James paled considerably, squeezing Teddy’s hand a little. A moment later he exclaimed, “Bags not telling him.”

“What?! But you’re his son, that’s not fair!”

“You’re the one fucking his golden child.”

Now Teddy was the one to pale, his hair colour melting away too. “Oh God, you have a point.”

“I always have a point,” James smirked, shuffling closer to Teddy.

“Oh, well,” Teddy gave a resigned sigh, turning to eye Harry who was over by the tents making sandwiches, apprehensively. “I suppose I’ll have to cave in, then.”

James leaned back and eyed Teddy for a moment. “Are you serious?”

“No, that's you.”

James rolled his eyes and pulled his hand out of Teddy’s grip. “You prat. Two awful puns in a row, holy Merlin. Dad’ll be so proud.”

Teddy stuck his tongue out at James and grinned, leaning in for a lingering kiss.


End file.
